A copy of Painting
No.2 above, The Royal George arriving in Edinburgh was sent
to me by Bryan Oliphant, New York, in February 2006.

Bryan asked 4
questions about it. See below. If you have any
further information or comments about this photo, please
e-mail me,
then I'll update this page and pass on your message to Bryan. Thank you.

In September 2013,
about 7years after I added Painting No.2
above to
the EdinPhoto web site, I received an email from David Munge, with a photo of
his Painting No.1, The Royal George leaving
Greenwich, London for its journey to Edinburgh.

David wrote:

"Here is a photo of my water colour painting of 'The Royal
George' leaving Greenwich in August 1822.

As you know this was the start of his journey to Leith where
Butterworth painted your Pinting No. 2."

David Munge, Kent,
England:
September 2, 2013

David
subsequently wrote:

"I bought my painting in a local auction. It's nice to
have owned a bit of history, but I intend to sell it in an auction
in October 2013.

There is no signature on my painting. It's not in great
condition, being on paper, but I've had it stabilized and put back
in its frame.

The painting looks quite naive in its conception, but it is a
record of what took place. By the way, I think the steam tug
in my picture is the James Watt, a very early steam paddle tug.

King George IV was embarked at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich,
and my painting shows the yacht being towed past the college

As you know this was the start of his journey to Leith where
Butterworth painted your Pinting No. 2. I saw the
Butterworth at Christies a couple of months ago and it's clearly a
much better painting.

I know that George IV visited
Edinburgh in august of 1822, and that Queen Victoria
repeated the Royal progress by landing at Granton Pier on 1
September 1842. both sovereigns arrived aboard 'The Royal
George'.

However, this was the first and last time
Queen Victoria travelled aboard the 1817 vessel. The
'Royal
George' was
mothballed after the trip. I'm sure you know that
Queen Victoria
sailed back to Woolwich aboard a General Steam Navigation
vessel. I suppose she didn't like the tow up.

It certainly makes
sense that Butterworth would have portrayed Queen Victoria's visit rather that the
visit of George IV as her visit was the biggest news of the
year during the fall of 1842.

Buttersworth was a businessman
and he painted what was 'hot'. The Royal progress of
1842 was a hot as it gets.

Bryan Oliphant, New York, New York, USA:
February 22, 2006

Bryan: You mention that Queen Victoria's visit would have
been the biggest news of the year in 1842. But the visit of
George IV was also a major event as can be seen by this account of
his
account of his arrival in Edinburgh in 1822.

He is still commemorated today by George IV Bridge. Edinburgh
Central Library stands on one side of the bridge and the National
Library of Scotland stands on the other side of the bridge.

There is also a statue to George IV at the junction of George
Street and Hanover Street, erected in 1831. Carved in large letters on the
stone plinth are the words: 'GEORGE IV VISITED SCOTLAND MDCCCXXII'.
(For a short period a few years ago, this was followed by 'Bully
for him' in spray paint.)

1822

Thomas Buttersworth (1768-1842) painted the arrival of George
IV at Leith in 1822. A painting of this visit by Butterworth
(oil on canvas 42cm x 67cm) was purchased from Sotheby's for the
City of Edinburgh Art Collection on 14 March 1990. It is the
only painting by Thomas Buttersworth in the City of Edinburgh Art
collection.

Illustrations of
Butterworth paintings of the 1822 visit can be found on:
- the
Go
Antiques web site.
- the
Bellrock web site.

The sea in the
painting on the 'Go Antiques' web site also looks very similar to
that on Bryan's painting.

In the painting on the
'Bellrock' web site, the Royal Yacht can be seen in the
background, under tow passing the Martello Tower, looking very
similar to the Royal Yacht under tow in the Bryan Oliphant's
painting.

This suggests to me that
Bryan's
painting is of the 1822 visit to Edinburgh.

Incidentally some
artistic licence seems to have been taken with the background.
On Bryan's painting it appears to be the island of Inchkeith to
the SW which seems reasonable. In the other two scenes it
appears to be the skyline of Edinburgh!

1842

However, it is interesting to read on this page of the
Go Antiques web site that Thomas Buttersworth also painted
Queen Victoria's visit to Edinburgh in 1842.

I feel that if the
picture depicts Queen Victoria's visit in 1842, James Edward
Butterworth would have painted the
picture, or at least had a hand in most of it as his father,
Thomas Buttersworth, died in November 1842.

Bryan Oliphant, New York, New York, USA:
February 22, 2006

There are several
sites on the Internet that list the paintings of Thomas
Buttersworth and his son James Edward Butterworth, but I have not
found any that attribute the 1842 painting to the latter.

I don't know how
active Thomas Butterworth was in the months before his death.

The 'Royal George is shown in
the painting being towed by a three-masted paddle steamer.
The account in the Illustrated London News has the 'Royal George' being towed up
the Firth and coming into the sight of spectators at about
7am and then proceeded up to Granton Pier where Queen
Victoria debarked at about 9am.

The weather was cloudy and
overcast, but cleared as she stepped ashore. Some said at
the time that this was a metaphor for her Reign.

I know from your
site that steam navigation commenced out of edinburgh in
1821, but i don't think the vessels would have been big
enough or strong enough to tow the royal george to
edinburgh.

Was there
a Martello Tower in the water at that time. One is
depicted between 'Royal George' and the towing vessel.

This
would establish locale beyond a shadow of doubt. but to
complicate things a bit, i suspect that Buttersworth took
dramatic liberties with space and time to enhance the
narrative quality of the painting.

Bryan Oliphant, New York, New York, USA:
February 22, 2006

Martello Tower

Bryan: As you suspected, the Martello tower
is the clue. There was a Martello Tower, built to the north of
Leith Harbour in 1809. The harbour has since expanded and the
tower is now half-buried in the eastern breakwater. You can see
it on the aerial photo below. Please click on the photo to enlarge
it.

The pier on the
right in the Buttersworth painting may be Leith West Pier. The
position where the pier used to be has been marked on the 2001
aerial view of Leith Docks, above. I would need to do a little
more investigation to see if that is what West Pier looked like.

The island in the
background of the Buttersworth painting will be Inchkeith, in the
Firth of Forth, north-east of Leith.

Further Comments

Further Comments from Bryan
Oliphant

Thank you to
Bryan Oliphant, owner of the painting at the top of this page, for
sending
further comments to me on the Buttersworth paintings above.